The “Last Premier Ball Bug” Is Making It Super Difficult To Catch Raid Bosses In Pokemon GO

Finding, defeating, and then catching raid Pokemon is already hard enough, but now we’ve got this to deal with, too. I am of course referring to the (now) infamous “last premier ball bug”, which has received quite a lot of attention recently.

For those who don’t know what the last premier ball bug is, I’ll explain. Basically, when you get down to your last premier ball, no matter what you do, the Pokemon can not be caught. You could throw a curve ball, get an “Excellent!” throw bonus, and even use a Golden Razz Berry, and it won’t matter.

Reddit user Duckel managed to capture a video showcasing the bug, which can be seen here. In the video, Duckel uses a Golden Razz Berry, a curve ball, achieves a “Great!” throw bonus, and also has a gold medal for Water type Pokemon.

Despite all of this, Duckel still fails to catch the Magikarp. Yeah, they failed to catch a Magikarp. Let that sink in for a second. You might think that Duckel just got unlucky, and that the last premier ball bug doesn’t actually exist. After all, even if it’s exceedingly rare, it must be possible to fail to catch a Magikarp in that situation, right? Wrong.

You see, we know what the catch rate for Magikarp are. We know what kind of catch multiplier throwing a curve ball, using a Golden Razz Berry, achieving a “Great!” throw bonus, and having a gold Water medal give to the player. When you do the math, and factor all of these variables, the catch rate for Magikarp is 100%.

If it were any other ball, the Magikarp would be caught. No questions asked. But, because it is premier ball (or more specifically, the last premier ball), the Magikarp was unable to be caught. Of course, this doesn’t just apply to Magikarp, but any and all raid bosses!

So, if you find yourself with 6 premier balls against a Moltres raid boss, you’ve really only got 5, because that last premier ball will not work, no matter what you do. It sucks, in fact it sucks a lot, but until Niantic fix this issue, there’s nothing that we can do except make our other throws count.

But what do you think about the last premier ball bug? Have you managed to catch a raid boss with your last premier ball? Or have you experienced the last premier ball bug yourself? As always, let me know your thoughts in the comment section below!

P.S. We’ve created an awesome raid cheat sheet, which shows you the absolute best Pokemon to use in 3 & 4 star raids! You can go ahead and click on the banner below to download your free copy now!